[Macworld]

Post your comments for How to choose a to-do manager here

[simdude]

I went through many task managers myself, including Remember the Milk, Wunderslist, Things and the Omni software. I'm back to using Reminders/iCal which, with Mountain Lion will just be Reminders. As lightweight as this is, I found I could do two things that made it work great. First, I broke down my areas of focus into separate lists. While not as sophisticated as what you can do with Omnifocus, I found the maintenance of a complex system made it a pain to use. At first, it seems great, but I would be curious to see what David is using in another year or two.

The second thing I love about Reminders/iCal is the shared lists/calendar. I have a couple of lists I share with my wife. If we think of a task or shopping item, we just add to the shared list. If you're married, you can't underestimate the power of getting things as a team. My wife will add things to our shopping list and when I stop at the store, the list will be up to date.

[cdumez]

ListMonger is my favorite, because it offers a feature that is rarely found in other apps. You can drag your list items into the order you want them to be. I've never liked Apple's hierarchical method because it's too limited. If my list has 17 things on it, I want to put them in the order that I need to do them. If I decide that "make dinner reservations" is now the most important thing I have to do, I want to be able to drag it from number 12 to number 1.

[TLEves]

Thank you again David for another excellent and helpful article. I am a professor rather than a lawyer, yet I am frequently truck by many needs that frequently parallel aspects of the legal profession and education. I check your blog daily for insights, reviews and iPad/iPod home pages!

[matt_kizerian]

simdude, on 25 June 2012 - 06:13 AM, said:

I went through many task managers myself, including Remember the Milk, Wunderslist, Things and the Omni software. I'm back to using Reminders/iCal which, with Mountain Lion will just be Reminders. As lightweight as this is, I found I could do two things that made it work great. First, I broke down my areas of focus into separate lists. While not as sophisticated as what you can do with Omnifocus, I found the maintenance of a complex system made it a pain to use. At first, it seems great, but I would be curious to see what David is using in another year or two.
...

I have been using OmniFocus on Mac for 4+ years now, and OmniFocus on iPhone for 3+ years now, and find both invaluable, particularly if trying to implement a Getting Things Done (GTD)style workflow. Once you grok the idea of projects and contexts from a GTD point of view, and (just as importantly) how your tasks and responsibilities map to those concepts, it isn't really as complicated as it may seem at first. Start simply with your most basic projects and contexts and add as it becomes evident you need more detail. For me, it is such a compelling paradigm that even though I (am forced to) use Windows at work, I keep my fairly extensive project task lists on OmniFocus for iPhone (I haven't yet gotten an iPad). In fact, even though I am somewhat of a skinflint with respect to paid software, this is one of the very few packages that I will purchase for each of my devices. The one caveat is that you really do need to adopt a GTD mindset. But if you're personal productivity needs are anything above a shopping list and "Remember to call Mom", then that is probably a good time investment anyway.

[Jerrykr]

We've been using Hitask for more than a year after trying others mentioned in comments. It's easiest to adopt and it don't impose the workflow or any weird way of organizing unlike many others mentioned. It's most straightforward and easy to use.

[tosui]

OmniFocus was the first app I purchased on my 1st-gen Touch - which was purchased as soon as Jobs announced that they were opening up the SDK to 3rd party devs! That was... 5 years ago I think? (Maybe four and some?). Either way, OmniFocus has held a place on the Home screen of each of my 3 iPod Touches and my iPhone, and I still rely on it (and the desktop version) numerous times a day. (I'm a psychologist and a university instructor, so I'm frequently busy!)

That said, I've always found the iPad version to be a little "lost" when it comes to the extra screen space, and not bringing anything novel or particularly useful that the iPhone version doesn't already have. That, and it's price, have kept me from wanting/needing it on my iPad.

And FYI, you can rearrange the tasks to create a visual hierarchy (when viewing Projects > All Remaining Actions), and I highly recommend it. There is a small bug in the iPhone app with this: the first time you bring up the "All Remaining Actions" screen it will simply list the Project name under each actions (despite already being sorted by Projects in this view!) HOwever, if you tap the "Back" button and then the "All Remaining Actions" view again, each action will now be listed by Project but WITH the particular Context listed underneath, which is priceless... to me, at least!

[PeterDinesen]

You have forgotten one major element of a good to-do list manager--- alerts and snooze. This is an essential tool for any busy person but ALL Mac software, save one, is extremely deficient in this regard. The single application which has even has full snooze options is Outlook.

How can this be? All these so-called "professional" to-do apps which cost a lot of bucks and not a single one of them can handle alerts and snooze. What's worse, now that Apple has it's toy-like notification system at the system level it is sure to kill any serious efforts to have a professional and mature alert/snooze option on the Mac. It's one of the few things I think Windows has over the Mac.

[johnnylundy]

Still waiting for a to-do list that includes the person you need to call, the person you need to email, or the website or piece of email that you need to refer to in order to do something. A reminder to "Call Bob" is barely useful if it doesn't have Bob's information from the Address Book, or the time I want to call him.

Apple's to-do list (Reminders) has no times, no links to persons, maps, emails, or URLs, and thinks that the only thing that matters is the "due date", as if scheduled things can be done ahead of time.

[abstractpenguin]

I use and enjoy GQueues.com for my to-do lists.

[asandlin]

johnnylundy, on 25 June 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Still waiting for a to-do list that includes the person you need to call, the person you need to email, or the website or piece of email that you need to refer to in order to do something. A reminder to "Call Bob" is barely useful if it doesn't have Bob's information from the Address Book, or the time I want to call him.

Apple's to-do list (Reminders) has no times, no links to persons, maps, emails, or URLs, and thinks that the only thing that matters is the "due date", as if scheduled things can be done ahead of time.

You might try Pocket Informant. It has capabilities to attach the contact information like you are speaking of, as well as many other cool features. It also supports hyperlinks as attachments, so the website scenario that you mentioned is in the bag. There are two versions, Pocket Informant for iPhone and Pocket Informant HD for iPad. Both have the same features, but the iPad version is optimized for the larger screen. I could go on and on, but you should probably just check them out yourself. webis.net

This post has been edited by asandlin: 26 June 2012 - 07:28 AM

[CharlesParente]

Every task I have, or will ever have, is linked to a date. How does OmniFocus interact with a calendar app? Why not just use a calendar app?? What am I missing here...

[jmontana]

johnnylundy, on 25 June 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Still waiting for a to-do list that includes the person you need to call, the person you need to email, or the website or piece of email that you need to refer to in order to do something. A reminder to "Call Bob" is barely useful if it doesn't have Bob's information from the Address Book, or the time I want to call him.

Apple's to-do list (Reminders) has no times, no links to persons, maps, emails, or URLs, and thinks that the only thing that matters is the "due date", as if scheduled things can be done ahead of time.

Appigo's ToDo does this. It's a little clunky on the Mac, but it's wonderful on the iPhone. It's not the perfect task manager, but I've finally realized that it's the only one that does all the things I need a task manager to do (repeating tasks, task duplication, location-based alerts, cloud syncing, hierarchies.) I'd like a prettier app, but functionality is far more important to me.

[jacklarm]

An important element in the selection of a product is cost-benefit analysis. Something that receives only 3 1/2 mice and cost $40 doesn't seem like a good deal! The only thing it tells me is that there is lots of room in the market for good product. Creative companies should take notice!